DIVINE INVITATION TO EXPERIENCE GOD’S GENEROSITY

In today's readings, we are honoured by God himself with a Divine Invitation that expresses God's love for us, who wants to quench our thirst and satisfy our hunger.

From the first reading of today, the Lord said, “Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the water; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come buy wine and milk without money and without price.” An invitation for a banquet, to be fed by God, whether you are given an invitation card or not, come! Whether we have money or not, come! The water, the wine, the milk and all we need to eat are free. Someone has paid for it; all we need to do is come! What a beautiful invite! Isaiah wants us to understand God's gift to humanity. He wants us to know that God has seen our hunger, our thirst, our weakness, our sufferings, sorrows and sickness, and he is ready to attend to our needs. 

The invitation to a banquet, as seen in the first reading, is realized in the gospel. There is an invitation that made the crowd follow Christ, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick. Just as the psalmist said, “How good is the Lord to all, compassionate to all his creatures.” The Lord is not only compassionate, but He is sensitive to the plight of His people; He noticed their hunger and request and asked the disciples to “give them something to eat” even when they thought that “They need go away.” 

At this point, Christ teaches us about generosity. Learning from his teaching, five loaves and two fish were provided, but Matthew did not record the source of it; John’s Gospel tells us a little boy expressed this generosity (John 6:9). When they brought the bread and fish to Christ, “He ordered the crowd to sit down on the grass.” They could have had their meal standing, but Christ prepared an atmosphere of a banquet for them, where there is enough for everyone. At their fill, twelve baskets were gathered, indicating God’s blessings in abundance when we are generous to him and to others.

In a nutshell, let us honour this beautiful invitation of God to a life of generosity, as He is generous to us, for when we give, it comes back to us. Let us not send away those in need of our help but rather give them something to eat. Let our hands be open like our heavenly Father, to satisfy the needs of those around us. Lastly, we are urged to be compassionate like our heavenly Father.

Fr. Ken Dogbo, OSJ